Arendelle Castle
by jynecatd
Summary: Elsa and Anna are two orphaned sisters living in the town of Arendelle, home to Arendelle Castle. On a field trip to the castle, Elsa discovers secrets about the castle that will change her life. Rated T for some swearing. Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen; Disney does. I wish I did, though!
1. Chapter 1: Arendelle

Elsa didn't need an alarm clock to wake up. She did so naturally, at six thirty AM, pretty much every morning. This morning was no exception.

It was chilly in the morning in Arendelle, a small town that was pretty much as close to Canada as you could get while still being in the US. Elsa lived with her twelve-year-old sister Anna and her adoptive parents, Kai and Gerda, just outside of town. It was a twenty minute walk to get to town and about thirty-five minutes to walk to school, which was what the girls always did and always had done.

Elsa put on black skinny jeans and a sky blue zip-up hoodie. She braided her dark brown hair over her shoulder and loaded her backpack with the books she would need for school. Then, she went back to her bedroom to wake her sister up.

Anna was still fast asleep, oblivious to the sounds of her sister walking around her room, Kai making coffee, and Gerda frying eggs. That is, until she was rudely shaken awake by a cold hand on her shoulder.

"Five more minutes, Elsa!" she groaned.

"In five more minutes, it will be six fifty-five, which means that you will have fifteen minutes to get ready, and I don't think it's possible for you to do everything you need to do in that amount of time. Let's go."

Anna heard her sister leave the room and decided that she would love to fall back asleep, but then she heard running feet. _Oh, no_. Then, there was a person on her back.

"I'm getting up!" she said. Now she was actually awake.

"You'd better be. I'm going to pack your stuff," said Elsa, rolling off the bed.

Anna put her red hair in two braids and got dressed in red jeans and a forest-green shirt. She slipped on black boots with a heel and followed her sister out the door.

They walked together for the first twenty minutes in silence. Elsa tipped her head up, liking the feel of wind on her face. The sun was out, drying the grass and reflecting off the stream running beside the road, turning it to silver.

Just outside of town was a small diner called Wandering Oaken's that made chocolate chip pancakes to die for. Elsa typically ate healthy, but she couldn't resist chocolate anything. They always stopped there and usually just grabbed bagels or something, but today, Elsa deemed that there was enough time to eat something at the diner.

The sisters got a plate of chocolate chip pancakes to share and Elsa got a fruit salad. As they were finishing up, another boy walked in. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He was followed by a chocolate lab.

"No, no, no, no! How many times to I have to tell you, no dogs allowed!" said the shop owner, Oaken. He hurried out from behind the counter. Oaken was at least seven feet tall and built like an ox. The boy protested, but Oaken just opened the door and pushed the dog out. "Bye bye!" he said cheerily. "Your puppy can wait there."

"Oh, come on!" said the boy. Elsa recognized him. His name was Kristoff and he was about six months younger than her, but he had stayed back a grade at some point, so he was now in eighth grade. Elsa was in tenth.

"You can leave, too," said Oaken, whose smile had never left his face.

"No, that's okay. I'd like three waffles, please. To go."

Elsa and Anna got up and headed for the door. Kristoff was right behind them. "Hey, guys," he said.

"Hi!" said Anna. "Ready for the field trip?"

Oh, yes, Elsa had nearly forgotten. This week was Learn About Arendelle week, and today, the junior and senior high schools were visiting Arendelle Castle. The castle had been built by Lord and Lady Arendelle, the founders of the town, but now it was just a museum. Elsa and Anna were descended from the original Arendelles, so Elsa had always felt a close connection to the castle and the town.

Anna, meanwhile, was chatting away with Kristoff. He was a nice boy, even if he was closer to Elsa's age than hers. Anna had had about a billion crushes in her twelve years of life, starting with Jeff Rides, all the way back in preschool. Now, she was pretty sure that she liked Kristoff, and that she liked him more than she had ever liked anyone else. Anna wasn't sure if that counted as love, but she was going to call it that.


	2. Chapter 2: Field Trip

"And this is the portrait room," droned the tour guide. "Feel free to look around."

This part was overwhelming for Anna. All the paintings… these were her ancestors, immortalized in frames. She laughed to see a little girl who looked just like her, with red hair and freckles. Then, she gasped.

She had never seen anyone with hair naturally as light as Elsa's. But the girl in this portrait had hair that was practically white, with barely any blonde. She was probably about eleven or twelve, and had a small smile on her face. The plaque under her portrait said "Aria Arendelle".

As Anna wandered through the room, she saw more and more girls with pale hair. An absurd amount, in fact. Anna didn't know how that sort of thing worked, but she was pretty sure that there was a minuscule chance of having hair like that. She guessed it must be genetic, but still. It was strange.

* * *

Elsa spread her sleeping bag out next to her best friend Miriam's. The eighty kids that made up the high school were spending the night in the castle. It was eight-thirty now. They'd just had pizza and cookies for dinner.

"All right, now that everyone's ready, we're going to play a game!" said the tour guide. "Ten of you are going to be searchers, and everyone else needs to hide somewhere in the castle. Remember, no one is allowed in roped-off areas. Those areas are in danger of collapse. To be safe, seekers will carry flashlights with red bulbs. You have three minutes to hide starting… now!"

Kids hurried off. Elsa jogged in the direction of the kitchen with Miriam close behind her.

"Where are we going?" asked Miriam, brown ponytail bouncing up and down.

"I was thinking the kitchen. There's lots of stuff to hide behind in there," Elsa said.

They arrived in the kitchen out of breath, having gotten lost on the way there. "Shit. They're gonna find us," said Miriam.

Elsa saw a red light. "Goddammit, Miriam. They're coming."

"What do we do?"

Elsa pulled her friend under a rope and into a pitch-black corridor. "Let's wait it out here."

The red light came closer. Elsa took Miriam's hand and led her down the corridor. Heart pounding, she sat down. "We'll wait here," she said in her quietest whisper.

They huddled in silence for several minutes, and then Elsa stood up. "You think it's okay?"

"Probably. Let's go." Miriam headed off in the opposite direction.

"M!" said Elsa. "Wrong way!"

"No, I'm pretty sure this is it," said Miriam. "Come on."

Despite her doubts, Elsa followed her friend. It seemed to be getting darker, not lighter. "We've gone too far, M. Let's turn the other way."

"It should be right up here." Miriam kept walking, while Elsa stopped. Suddenly, she heard a scream. Miriam's scream. Then, her friend ran past her at top speed.

"What's going on?" said Elsa. She turned in the direction that Miriam had come from and saw a face, hauntingly familiar. So familiar that it was impossible. But it was.

"Elsa?" asked a voice that Elsa knew well.

Elsa didn't answer. She ran and caught up with Miriam. They slid under the rope and ran straight into a boy with a red flashlight.

"Caught you," said the boy. "Doing something you weren't supposed to do."

"Hans," growled Elsa.

"Like you never break the rules?" scoffed Miriam.

Hans smiled winningly. "Have you ever caught me breaking the rules?"

"No, but—"

"Then where's your proof?" Miriam opened her mouth and closed it. Hans laughed. "I thought so. But it's okay. I'll let you off the hook this one time. If you come back here with me. I want to see what's going on here."

"No way! I'm never going back," said Miriam immediately.

Elsa considered it. "I'll come back with you."

"Excellent! Then we've got a date. I'll see you here Saturday, nine AM sharp." Hans turned on his heel and walked away.

"Why would you do that?" asked Miriam.

Elsa shrugged. "Why not? I'm curious, too."

"You're crazy. I don't know what you saw, but I… well, actually, I didn't see anything."

Elsa laughed.

"But I felt a person. And, frankly, I don't want to know what a person is doing back there."

"I do," said Elsa. "If something's up, then I'd like to know about it."

"What if it's something illegal? What if they're dealing drugs out of the castle?"

"I don't think there's a huge market for drugs in Arendelle," laughed Elsa.

"Or maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's something totally stupid, like that person was a janitor or something."

"This will bother me until I figure it out. I'm going back, and that's final." Elsa was nervous, but excited, too. If she saw who she thought she saw, then that was a good thing. Right?


	3. Chapter 3: Return to the Tunnels

Elsa got off her bike at the base of the trail leading up to Arendelle Castle. She glanced up and saw Han's ginger hair at the top. He was early.

When she got to the top, he glanced at her. "It's only eight fifty."

"Got a problem with that?" asked Elsa, all her guards up. Hans was not a nice guy, and she didn't want to give him a chance to get close to her.

He arched an eyebrow. "Not at all. Let's go."

Technically, the castle didn't open until nine, but Hans cajoled the security guard into letting them in early. Once they were inside, he looked at her. "Kitchen?"

"Kitchen," confirmed Elsa. There were other roped-off places, too, of course, but the kitchen was where they had seen the person yesterday and it was where she was planning to go.

"Okay. Come on." They walked to the kitchen and ducked under the rope. Once inside the dark tunnel, Hans clicked on a flashlight. "Bet you didn't think to bring one of these, huh?"

"That's what phones are for," retorted Elsa, who hadn't given any thought to a light source.

They walked in silence until they came to a turn. "Now where?" asked Elsa.

"This way," said Hans, choosing the right path.

"What makes you think that?" asked Elsa.

"If you've got a better idea, please offer it. If not, shut your face." It was the first time Hans had said something directly impolite, which made Elsa think that he was probably nervous.

Hans led them down another few random turns. Suddenly, Elsa heard something and grabbed his shoulder.

"What's your problem? Get off," he said, shaking her hand off.

"Shut up! I can hear voices."

They both listened intently. The voices stopped. Elsa shivered. "Hans, this is a really bad idea. We need to go. Now."

"No. What did you hear, anyway?"

Elsa didn't respond for a moment, but then she heard something else. "Hans, footsteps! I think someone's coming for us!"

"Stop trying to trick me!"

"I'm not lying!"

Hans looked into Elsa's clear blue eyes and knew that that was true. "Oh, shit. Come on!"

They ran off. "Which way did we come?" yelled Hans.

"You decided, you figure it out!" The footsteps were coming closer, running now.

"Shit." Hans tore off down a random path, but Elsa was faster. Her years of running track kicked in and she sprinted past Hans and took a turn. Suddenly, there were footsteps in front of her as well. She made another turn, trying to get away, and wound up facing a whole crowd of people. An old man shoved something in her face—a flower?—and Elsa collapsed.

* * *

Hans saw light up ahead and turned off his flashlight. He jumped over the rope and landed on his feet in the middle of the entryway.

"What were you doing?" barked a security guard.

"I was looking for my sister! She went back there and now I can't find her!" Hans wailed.

"Why were you running like all of hell was after you, then?" asked the guard.

"I wasn't, I was just trying to jump the rope! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hans was really going crazy now, but he figured that it was better to be overzealous than to not act upset enough.

"Come with me, kid. I'm gonna call your parents." As the guard dragged him away, Hans wondered where Elsa was now, and why he had gotten in trouble when it was all her fault.


	4. Chapter 4: Gone

Anna was worried.

She sat at her computer. Every time a branch cracked or the wind blew outside, she jumped up, hoping to see her sister come walking down the path.

Every time, she sat back down, panic growing in her stomach.

Where could Elsa be? She'd left before eight thirty that morning without saying a word about where she was going. The night before, she'd barely talked at dinner. That in it of itself wasn't too unusual. Elsa was never talkative. The strange thing was that she'd gone straight upstairs after clearing her plate instead of doing what she usually did, which was watch TV with Anna.

It was four o'clock now. Anna had decided that she would tell Gerda the whole story at four thirty. Gerda had asked earlier, but Anna had vaguely said, "She's with a friend."

The phone rang and Anna answered without looking at who it was. It had to be Elsa, of course it was Elsa, calling to say she was on her way home.

It was Kristoff.

"Hey," he said.

"Oh. Hi," said Anna, deflated.

"That was the most unenthusiastic hello I've ever heard," teased Kristoff.

Anna shrugged, forgetting that Kristoff couldn't see her. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Yes," she said.

There was another awkward pause, and then, "Do you want to tell me?"

"Not now. I'm coming to your place. Be there in half an hour." She hung up, leaving Kristoff wondering what exactly was going on.

* * *

Kristoff lived in a small community called Living Rock that was about six miles from Anna's house. It consisted of a ring of houses around a central green. When Anna got there, Kristoff was sitting on a bench in the green. He got up when he saw her coming.

"So, what's up?" he asked gently, giving her a tentative hug.

Anna took a breath and started talking. She was able to get through about the first sentence of the story before she started crying loudly, talking through her tears. When she finished, she said, "And I just don't know what to do… This has never happened before… She didn't say anything… It's just so unlike her!"

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. I'm sure she's fine," said Kristoff, who wasn't great at comforting people. "But since you're upset, why don't you ask one of her friends if they know anything?"

Glad to have something to do, Anna nodded. "I know her friend Miriam's number." She pulled out her cell phone and opened her text messages. She typed, _Hey, it's Anna, Elsa's little sister._ _Do you know where Elsa is?_

A reply came back right away. _Not here._

_Any ideas?_

_No. Yes. Maybe. _

Anna bit her lip. _Where?_

Miriam's reply was two words.

A smile lit up Anna's face, and Kristoff smiled too, to see her. She was pretty when she smiled. "She's at Arendelle Castle!"

"What on earth is she doing there?" said Kristoff, more to himself than anyone else.

"We've got to go there!" Anna jumped back on her bike.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you have any idea how long it would take to bike to the castle?" said Kristoff, being the practical one, as usual.

"I don't care! This is my sister!" said Anna.

"I've got a better idea," said Kristoff, running behind one of the dilapidated houses. A minute later, Anna heard the sound of an engine and he came out on a golf cart.

"A golf cart? Is it even legal to drive one of those on an actual road?" asked Anna.

"I've done it before, and I'm fourteen. I can't drive a real car," said Kristoff practically. "Come on, Sven!"

The Lab jumped up from where he was lying and sprang into the backseat.

"Can I put my bike in?" said Anna, climbing in. She'd never been in a golf cart before.

"I've got it." Kristoff got out and lifted the bike in the back. "Here we go!"

* * *

It was past five by the time they arrived, and it was dark.

"It's closed," said Anna.

"That's okay. She's probably home," Kristoff reassured her. "Look, why don't you go back to your house? If she's not there, we'll go back tomorrow morning."

* * *

When Kristoff dropped Anna off, Gerda came out to her.

"Anna! Don't run off like that!"

"I'm fine, Gerda," said Anna. "Oh, I saw Elsa in town. She wanted to know if she could sleep over at Miriam's tonight."

"Of course," said Gerda.

Anna went upstairs. She was nervous. What could Elsa be doing in the dark castle?


	5. Chapter 5: Kidnapped

**Okay, I changed the first and second chapters a little bit. It's a detail but important, so I'm going to tell you here in case you didn't catch it or don't feel like going back to that chapter to check it out. This is the thing: Elsa actually has dark brown hair. You'll see why...**

* * *

Elsa woke up to a round of applause.

She was no stranger to people cheering for her. It happened every time she was in a musical or singing a solo in her choir's concert. But she had not just been belting her voice out. She was lying on a cold, stone table doing nothing much.

The applause was dying down, and she could hear whispers now. "Amazing"… "Never seen anything like it"… "Best since Aria's"… "Did you see what she did to her clothes?"

Elsa opened her eyes.

She was staring at a high ceiling. Directly above her was a beautiful, perfectly symmetrical snowflake. She scanned the rest of the ceiling, and found that it was covered in snowflakes. Some were beautiful, others misshapen. In some places, there were holes, in others, nothing at all.

She sat up. There were people in a small semicircle, all watching her. Platinum blonde hair fell in waves over her shoulders. Platinum blonde. Elsa's head felt fuzzy, but she could tell that there was something wrong. What's wrong with this picture, Elsa? What's strange here? She dredged up a picture of herself in her mind: small nose, ice blue eyes, dark hair. What?

Elsa tugged on a lock of hair. It hurt. Not a wig, then. Did these people kidnap her and bring her here so they could dye her hair? Then, she noticed something odd about her sleeve, which felt ice-cold. Instead of her white fleece jacket she'd been wearing, she was wearing something very pale blue. From how it felt around her legs, she was pretty sure it was a dress.

"Welcome, Elsa Arendelle," said a voice. Elsa's eyes darted around the room, searching for who had spoken. Then, every single person there knelt on the ground.

A white-haired man walked up to her and offered her his hand. She cautiously took it, and he pulled her to her feet. Then he, too, knelt.

Elsa found her voice and muttered to herself, "What the hell is going on?"

* * *

Two young ladies in old-fashioned servant clothes "escorted" Elsa to a room. It involved a lot of kicking and screaming on Elsa's part and a lot of dragging on the ladies'.

Elsa threw herself at the door, but it was already latched and locked. She turned around.

A mirror was on the opposite wall. Elsa barely recognized herself. She usually wore her hair—which was usually dark brown—in a ponytail. Now, it was almost white and down, falling halfway down her back. Instead of jeans and a sweater and sneakers, her typical attire, she was wearing a long gown that shimmered in the light from a window and seriously uncomfortable high heels. She looked strange. She looked like someone in a movie. She looked… beautiful.

There was a big wardrobe. Elsa walked over to it and opened it. Inside were her normal clothes.

"What the…" Elsa murmured.

She remembered the phone in the pocket of her jeans and ran over to check them. It was gone. Okay. No more contact with the outside world. What did you do in these situations? In school, they'd talked about what you were supposed to do if a rapist or mugger came after you. But what was the standard protocol for what to do when you got kidnapped by people who dyed your hair and put you in a ridiculous outfit?

Elsa guessed that this didn't happen enough for it to be considered important to discuss.

She looked out the window and saw Arendelle spread out before her. She must have been really high up, because she could see green hills and roads branching out from the town.

There was her house, hidden under trees. Her heart ached for home. Gerda and Kai and Anna must be worried sick. Were they looking for her? What was Anna thinking now?


	6. Chapter 6: The Search Begins

Anna woke up early and texted Kristoff to tell him to meet her at the castle. She threw on sweatpants and a winter coat, left a note for Kai and Gerda on the table, and started the ride into town.

* * *

Kristoff was awakened by Anna's text dinging close to his ear. He groaned when he saw that it was seven thirty. The castle wouldn't even be open yet. Still, he couldn't just leave her. He got into the golf cart and followed his friend.

* * *

Anna was passing by Oaken's when she heard the whine of the golf cart. She stopped riding and turned around. Sure enough, there was Kristoff, driving towards her, Sven sitting straight up on the seat beside him. Anna's heart pounded. He was smiling with a careless ease, and it seemed that he was genuinely happy to see her. Just like she was genuinely ecstatic to see him.

He parked outside the diner and got out. "Wanna go in and get something to eat?" he asked. Anna would never turn down the offer of food, particularly if the food was Oaken's pancakes.

Once they were settled at a table, Kristoff asked the question he'd been wondering about all night. "So, what are we going to do, exactly?"

Anna froze with a slice of pancake halfway to her mouth. "That is a very good question."

"I assume you're saying that because you don't have a very good answer?"

"All right. My answer is that I have no clue. I was hoping that you would know."

"Why would I know?"

Anna gave him a winning smile. "Because you're two years older and wiser than me. Plus, you're a guy."

"I wouldn't call myself wiser. And what does my sex have to do with anything?"

"Evidently, it makes you stupid," Anna returned quickly. "Anyway, back to my plan."

"Or lack thereof."

"You're really annoying. Please shut up," said Anna. "Maybe we could ask around. Maybe one of the security people knows something."

"All right. What do we do after that?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Anna, stuffing her face with pancakes once again.

* * *

Because it was a Sunday, the castle opened at eight-thirty. The pair were the first ones inside.

"Who do we ask?" said Kristoff.

Anna walked up to a man in khakis and a green polo shirt. "Excuse me, sir, I was wondering if you saw a girl with dark brown hair here yesterday? She's about five foot eight, thin, blue eyes. Pretty. Her name's Elsa."

The man frowned at her and said something in either Italian or Spanish; Anna wasn't quite sure which.

"Oops! Sorry. Bye." She slunk back to Kristoff.

"Well, that went well," said Kristoff.

"Okay, you ask someone," Anna said, glowering at him.

Kristoff scanned the room and caught sight of a young woman with a name tag that read _Belle_. He walked up to her.

"Sorry to bother you. Do you work here?"

"Yes," she said with a friendly smile.

"I was wondering if you saw a girl here yesterday. She has brown hair, a little darker than yours, and blue eyes. I think she'd be a little taller than you, shorter than me. She looks kind of like her sister over there." Kristoff gestured at Anna.

"Oh," she said. "I'm sorry, I work at the library on Saturdays."

"Oh," said Kristoff. "Thanks for your time."

He walked back to Anna.

"What'd she say?" the younger girl asked.

"She wasn't here yesterday," said Kristoff.

Anna's face fell, but she quickly smiled again. "That's okay. Let's try someone else."

* * *

After an hour and a half of searching, Kristoff was pretty sure that they had talked to every single person in the castle. The one lead they had found had been from a guard, who had told them that a girl fitting Elsa's description had come in early yesterday morning with a red-haired boy.

Kristoff walked up to a security guard. "Excuse me, but did you happen to see a fifteen-year-old girl yesterday? She's got brown hair and blue eyes, about five eight. She might have been with a boy, same age, with red hair? Her name's Elsa Arendelle and he's Hans Souther, we think." They'd deduced that the boy was probably Hans Souther.

"I saw the boy, not the girl," said the man, a gruff, gray-haired guy in his fifties. "He was sneaking around in the tunnels, claimed to be looking for his sister."

"Okay, thank you so much!" said Anna cheerfully before dragging Kristoff over to a corner. "Elsa must be in the roped-off areas!"

Kristoff winced. "Why would she do that?"

"I don't know! Does it matter? We have to go in there and find her!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. No, we don't. I'm sure that Elsa is fine. We don't want to get in trouble, plus it might not be safe. There's no point in us getting hurt," said Kristoff.

Anna pouted. "Please, Kristoff! What if Elsa's hurt?"

"Look, we shouldn't have even tried to do this alone. Let's go back to your house and talk to your parents. They can call the police. This is really bad, Anna. We should just step aside and let the professionals deal with it."

"I can't believe you would say that! I don't care what you think, she's my sister and I'm going to go save her!" Anna ran off.

"Anna!" called Kristoff. She didn't respond. "She's going to get hurt, or lost, or something. And it's all going to be your fault. You're older, you need to help her." He groaned, hating his brain, and followed her.


	7. Chapter 7: Ice Powers

There was a knock on Elsa's door.

She was sitting in a plush chair, dressed in her old jeans and jacket, with her hair braided. She felt much better now that she was out of that dress, which was made of a material that felt as cold as ice.

Strangely, the cold hadn't bothered her at all.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"I'm a servant, ma'am. I've been told to take you to the Lord."

"Tell your lord that I refuse to go anywhere," Elsa said.

The door opened and the man who had pulled Elsa off the stone bench walked in. "I had assumed you would say that," he said. "You are headstrong."

Elsa didn't reply.

He sighed. "I suppose you're wondering why you are here."

Again, Elsa said nothing.

"If you don't care, then…" He got up and started to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Elsa couldn't just let him get away without telling her what was going on. "Tell me."

"I thought you'd come to the conclusion that that would be good for you," he said, coming back and sitting opposite her. "First, I need to tell you that I am your grandfather."

Elsa frowned. "My grandfather died."

"No," he said. "My name is Wilhelm Arendelle. I am the father of Mayris Arendelle, who is your mother."

Elsa didn't know what to think. Her mother was Mayris Arendelle. She had kept her maiden name after marriage, and it was the name that Anna and Elsa went by. Still, anyone could find that out. "I don't believe you."

"Suit yourself," he said with a shrug. "The second thing I need to tell you is that ever since the beginning of time, the Arendelle family has been blessed and cursed with power over ice and snow."

Things were beginning to come together, but Elsa shoved the explanation out of her mind, because no one had ice powers. That was ridiculous.

"We are blessed with this power. It helps us, supports us, protects us. Unfortunately, people do not like that we have these abilities. They hate us. Many of our ancestors have been persecuted."

"Back up," said Elsa. "How can I trust you without proof? Show me these powers. Turn the chair I'm sitting in to ice."

He shook his head sadly. "I cannot. You see, only females have the ability."

"That makes no difference to me. Show me that what you're saying is true. Then I'll believe you."

He stood up. "Come with me."

* * *

They were back in the room where Elsa had woken up. "This is what we call the Awakening Room."

"So, this is where you drag poor, innocent girls and wake them up," said Elsa.

"No. This is where we awaken the powers of Arendelle girls. These snowflakes were made by the people in the family with powers. You made one of them. Find it."

"Would that be the one I woke up under?"

He shrugged, which Elsa took to mean yes.

"How am I supposed to know? They all look the same! I mean, not exactly the same, but they're all snowflakes!"

"You'll know," he said unhelpfully.

Elsa tilted her head up to the ceiling and walked around slowly. Then, she saw one that seemed to chime with soft bells. She walked towards it and stood under it. Looking at the ground, she saw that ice was beginning to spread from her feet.

He clapped. "Very good. Your snowflake will feed your powers. When you need them, think of the snowflake."

Elsa decided to test something out. She walked to the other side of the room. Picturing her snowflake in her mind, she waved her hand. Snow shot from it. Elsa laughed. It felt like the snow and ice had been trapped inside her, holding her back, and finally, she could just let it go. It seemed natural to her, even though she'd originally thought that magical powers were the imaginings of an insane mind.

"Do you believe me now?" Wilhelm asked.

"Yes."


	8. Chapter 8: Danger in the Tunnels

Anna made it about two steps into the dark tunnel before realizing what a bad idea this was.

She and Kristoff were traveling solely by the light of their phones, which cast some light, but not enough. Not being able to see freaked her out. She got the feeling that the walls would be covered in some sort of nastiness, so she didn't look at them. She tried not to look down, either, because she didn't know what would be on the floor. She was reassured by the steady beat of Kristoff's feet on the floor behind her. If he was scared, he wasn't showing it.

Suddenly, Anna held up her hand. "Stop!" she hissed.

"What?" said Kristoff.

"I hear something. People."

"Maybe that's where Elsa is," said Kristoff, who couldn't hear anything.

"Maybe." Anna wasn't sure. "Turn off your phone."

"Why?"

"I don't want them to find us before we find them," said Anna.

They crept forwards in the complete darkness.

"I see something," said Kristoff. "Light."

Now guided by the bright light, they could see. And they had a goal. It was still slow. The light seemed to get farther and farther away, but finally, they could see that the light was coming from an open door.

Anna started to run. Elsa had to be there, she simply had to be. Her jog turned into a sprint, so Kristoff had to run to keep up with her.

Time started to slow down for Kristoff seconds before it actually happened. It was some kind of sixth sense that started dinging in his head, _Danger, Danger, Danger_.

Anna's feet hit the ground with echoing thuds, her braids moved up and down in slow motion. She was ten feet from the door, six, three, two, one…

Kristoff leapt for her. Maybe if he hadn't been frozen, if he had been running with her, he would have caught her.

As it was, he managed to grab her jacket with one hand as she tumbled over the doorstep and started to fall thirty feet onto a hard stone courtyard.

Kristoff had her, by some miracle. But her arms were starting to slide from her jacket, and he could hear snaps from the seams.

Anna was screaming. Kristoff was yelling her name.

"GIVE ME YOUR HAND!"

"What?"

"YOUR HAND!"

Anna thrust her hand upwards so suddenly that all Kristoff could do was slap at it.

"Again!"

This time, he could get a hold, and just in time, as the seam of her fleece jacket broke. He let go of it and grabbed her arm with his other hand. Then, he felt hands on his legs, pulling him backwards.

"Anna!"

He was losing his grip on her, and the tugging on his legs was becoming stronger. But they weren't pulling her with him, they were pulling him away from her hands. Anna was crying and Kristoff was screaming and then…

She was gone. He could hear her screams ringing in his ears as he got to his feet and punched the white-haired woman who was standing there right in the nose.

* * *

**Sorry this one was short! I promise I will get a new chapter up today or early tomorrow!**


	9. Chapter 9: Some Explanations

Elsa seated herself comfortably on the floor. "So, tell me, do you just kidnap Arendelle girls and wake up their powers?" she said sarcastically.

"Yes," said Wilhelm, as if there was nothing wrong with that at all.

"And then our hair turns light?"

"It depends."

Elsa wrinkled her nose. "You mean, I could have kept my hair the way it was?"

"It's not exactly… your decision." Wilhelm seemed a little uncomfortable now.

"So what is it?"

"Well… some girls don't have ice powers."

"And what's wrong with that?" Elsa could see that this was uncertain ground for Wilhelm, which only made her more curious.

"Some of them… their bodies can't stand what we must do in the Awakening ritual."

"And what happens to them?" Elsa asked, voice hard and cold.

"Oh, sometimes they just start screaming and we can stop the ritual. Then, we allow them to stay with us, or they can go, of course," said Wilhelm cheerfully.

"You said sometimes. What about the other times?"

Wilhelm's face fell, but Elsa wasn't going to back off. "Well, sometimes we don't know that they don't have powers until we've already gone too far in the ritual. Then, most of them die. Some survive, but have serious brain damage. Some can only live on life support. It's really not very pleasant."

Elsa's jaw dropped. "So you do this without any regard to the girl whatsoever? You just do this ritual thing and say, _Oh, dear_, when the girl dies?"

"It's a lot more heartfelt than just—"

"No, I don't think it is. You see, I don't think you can do that great of harm to someone and truly feel bad for it, and then just do it again. That's ridiculous. You're a monster."

"If you knew what we were fighting for—"

"Is what you're fighting for worth more than the lives of innocents?"

"What if we're saving the lives of many more innocents?"

"Tell me whose lives you are saving. Go on, tell me," said Elsa sitting back. Menacingly, she snapped her fingers and small icicles sprang up around the man, growing very, very slowly.

He looked at them nervously. "We are fighting the fire-makers. They threaten us. We have been at war since we first discovered our powers. The Arendelle family is very strong, but we are only one family, and half of us can't do anything at all! Fire-makers come from all families, and they have scouts out, looking for more to grow their army."

"You haven't said anything about the lives of the innocents," said Elsa. The icicles started to grow faster and pointed towards him.

"Our wars affect the outside world as well! You can't have two extremely powerful forces fighting each other without effect on normal people!" Wilhelm spoke quickly. "That's what happens, I swear! Please don't hurt me!"

Elsa stopped the icicles. "I believe you."

Suddenly, she heard screams that she would recognize anywhere. "Anna!" she shouted, running towards the sound.

"Wait! Get me out!" said Wilhelm, but Elsa paid no attention.

She ran into the courtyard and saw the most terrifying sight of her life. A crumpled heap with red hair lay in a strange position on the ground.

"Anna… No, Anna." Elsa knelt next to her sister and held her in her arms. "Anna, wake up. Wake up!"

She could feel a heartbeat, so her sister wasn't dead. But she had to get her out of there. She refused to let Anna go through the ritual, which might end up with her dead. For real.

* * *

**I'm debating giving Anna or Hans fire powers. Any opinions? Please tell me if you feel strongly about it one way or another!**


	10. Chapter 10: Sisters Reunited

Kristoff woke up in an actual dungeon. Like you saw in movies. Complete with the shackles and the stone bed.

At least he wasn't restrained in any way. He got up and paced the cold room. Why was he here? He had a vague memory of a fight, in which it was him against about ten other people. But why had he gotten into the fight in the first place?

Anna. The memory of her terrified face came back to him. He tried to shut it out. He didn't want to remember. But it was too late. Her scream echoed in his ears. He could feel her hot, sweaty hand on his… could feel it slipping away…

Kristoff threw himself on the ground and grabbed his head in both hands, trying to get rid of her. But now that she was inside his head, she wasn't getting out. Anna, Anna, Anna, where was she now?

* * *

Elsa had not let go of her little sister. She didn't know how long it had been, only that some people had come with a stretcher. They'd loaded Anna onto it and taken her to an infirmary. Now they were both lying on a white bed. If Elsa closed her eyes, she could forget that Anna was not just asleep and that she was hooked up to various beeping machines and imagine that they were together, in bed in Kai and Gerda's house, and Anna had had a nightmare, so she had crawled into Elsa's bed for comfort, and now she was sleeping soundly, and everything was okay, and they would wake up in the morning and go to school like normal…

Kai and Gerda. What must they be thinking? Anna's phone had been shattered, of course, so there was no way of contacting them. Unless…

Elsa rolled off the bed and kissed Anna's forehead gently. "I'll be right back."

She left to find a phone.

"Elsa?"

She turned her head and saw a woman with light blonde hair, wearing a white dress, standing in a doorway.

The woman went to the girl and hugged her tightly. Elsa allowed herself to fall into the warm arms.

"Oh, sweet," she said. "I'm your Aunt Mikla."

Her mother's twin sister.

"Anna's going to be okay, I promise."

Anna. Kai and Gerda. Elsa stood up straight, detaching herself from her aunt. "Do you have a cell phone?" she asked, concealing her inner turmoil.

"Of course. Who do you need to call?" asked the woman.

"My adoptive parents," said Elsa, taking the phone and dialing their number.

Gerda picked it up. "Hello, Gerda speaking. Who is this?"

"Gerda. It's Elsa." It felt so good to hear Gerda's voice again.

"Oh, Elsa darling, how was Miriam's?" There was a suspicious edge to Gerda's voice.

"Fun. Gerda, something happened to Anna."

"Oh, sweetheart." There was a pause. "You weren't really at Miriam's house, were you?"

"No."

"You're at Arendelle Castle, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You've got your mother's gift, don't you?"

"Yes."

"I thought so." Gerda was all business, not at all like Elsa had expected. "So, what's up with Anna?"

Elsa tried to explain, but a lump caught in her throat. "I think you should come here."

* * *

Anna couldn't feel anything.

She was so, so cold. So cold she felt like she was frozen solid.

Then, she felt the warmth.

It started from her heart and spread through her body like a raging wildfire. It comforted her.

Then, warm turned to hot. To fire.

Anna was on fire.

She screamed and screamed, but she knew that no one could hear her, because it was all in her mind.


	11. Chapter 11: Fire-User

Elsa couldn't believe that the world hadn't changed in the day she'd been in the inner castle.

The sun was still shining. People were still walking around. There weren't any zombies and it wasn't raining ash or anything like that.

She wasn't sure what she had expected, but it wasn't this. This was way too normal.

And there was Gerda, with her gray hair up in a bun, wearing a muted brown dress. She was looking around. Elsa remembered that she probably didn't recognize her.

"Gerda!" The woman looked in her direction. "It's me, Elsa."

"Elsa!" Gerda hurried over to her and wrapped her in a warm hug. "We've missed you so. I barely recognized you with your hair."

Elsa laughed self-consciously and twisted a strand of hair around her finger. "So, do you want to go?"

"Of course. How's she doing?"

Elsa proceeded to explain that Anna had not woken up and there had been no change in her condition.

"Oh, the poor darling. I can't wait to see her."

By now, they were in the tunnels. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Elsa entered the main room of the infirmary. A doctor instantly ran to her.

"Miss Elsa! Your sister… she's…"

"Something changed?" Elsa's heart leapt before she remembered that that wasn't necessarily good.

"Yes."

"Is she getting better?" asked Gerda nervously.

"Her heart rate has gone up. It spiked suddenly, going almost at maximum, and stayed there for several minutes. Then it went down. We think she's sleeping normally now."

Elsa suddenly heard a commotion in the room and another doctor ran out. "Come quickly!"

Elsa and Gerda tried to go into the room, but the doctor blocked them with his arm. "No, just wait here. We'll tell you when you can come in."

Elsa took a seat in the chair nearest the door and waited nervously.

* * *

Anna sat up. She looked around and noticed several doctors watching her.

She shut them out and looked inwards. At herself. Was what she was feeling real?

Anna held up her hand and remembered the warmth.

A small flame formed in her hand.

And all hell broke loose.

* * *

When Elsa heard the screams, she burst into the room and saw what was so obviously impossible, so impossible that her brain refused to acknowledge it.

* * *

The fire spread up Anna's arms.

Doctors were screaming. Anna ignored them. All she knew was that she was on fire, for real now. Flames rippled off her torso, consumed her hair.

She was terrified. She didn't know how to stop it. What was it that was making this happen to her?

A blast of cold air shot at her, but her fire consumed it. Every icicle, every gust of snow they sent her way only fed the fire.

Through the flames, she saw her sister burst into the room. There were screams of "Monster!" "Fire-user!" "Kill her!"

Anna ran to Elsa, but she was blocking the doorway. She hesitated, unwilling to touch her sister for fear of hurting her.

Then Elsa reached out and touched her.

* * *

Elsa didn't know what she was doing. It was madness to stick your hand in the fire.

But what if you loved the fire?

* * *

Where Elsa's hand touched her, the flames disappeared.

The effect spread through her body quickly, until Anna collapsed on the floor.

She felt her sister's cold arms around her. Elsa was safety.

Anna allowed her exhaustion to take over.

* * *

The other people grabbed Elsa and pulled her away from her sister. "Don't touch her," said one woman softly. "She's a fire-user. A monster."

"I see no difference between her and me," said Elsa angrily, spinning away from them all. "We can create ice. She can create fire. The difference is the element and nothing more. By that definition, we're all monsters. We're all freaks of nature."

"Elsa, please—" Gerda touched her arm comfortingly. "You have to understand that these people are unused to someone like your sister—"

"That doesn't give them the right to treat her like an animal!" shouted Elsa, ripping her arm away and holding it close to her.

"Elsa, you of all people should understand that she is our enemy! You are our greatest hope, the most powerful person to be born in hundreds of years!"

"I will use my power against you before I fight Anna," hissed Elsa, whirling. She stalked out of the room, waving one hand above her head. The door slammed shut behind her, trapping her little sister with the people who wanted to kill her.


	12. Chapter 12: Back to School

**Sorry for no update yesterday! Here's a long(er) chapter... kind of a filler but still important!**

* * *

If walking into the public part of Arendelle Castle after a day in the inner castle was strange, going back to school the next day was ten times weirder.

Elsa had had to explain her sudden change in hair color a dozen times. She blamed it on Anna trying to bleach her hair as a practical joke, but it had ended up looking crazy and she'd had to go to the hairdresser to even it all out.

"Your hairdresser is amazing! It looks totally natural!" several girls remarked to her, to which Elsa just shrugged.

She'd managed to avoid Miriam and Hans for the morning, but her luck couldn't hold. Miriam cornered her right after lunch.

"Okay, what's up?" she asked.

"Up? With what?" said Elsa.

"With you and Hans going to the castle, and you not coming home, and Anna getting all worried and texting me," said Miriam.

"Anna texted you?" Elsa realized that she hadn't found out how Anna had figured out that she was in the castle. "Oh. I didn't know that."

"So what's up?" Miriam was unrelenting.

"Okay, the whole story is that no one was awake when I got up to meet Hans and I forgot to leave a note, so they didn't know where I was. Anyway, we looked around a lot and then we got lost. It took us all day to find our way out and I didn't get home until six. Anna was really mad. That's why she poured bleach on my hair."

"Hmm," said Miriam.

"Goddammit, girl, why don't you believe me?"

"Because I just don't. I know when you're lying, Elsa."

"Obviously not, since you think I'm lying now, which I'm not." Was that too much denial? Anna was so gullible she believed anything, and she was pretty much the only person Elsa every lied to.

"Fine. Don't tell me. I don't give a shit," said Miriam, walking away.

* * *

Hans came up to Elsa as she was walking to her track practice.

"I'm so glad you got out," he said with a worried expression.

"You, too," she said. "That was a shitty way to spend a Saturday."

"You're telling me. They caught me coming out of those tunnels, can you believe it? They took me to their little security office and everything." He laughed.

"That's great," said Elsa offhandedly.

"Did you see anything else back there, by any chance?"

_Why, yes, Hans. I met all these people who have powers over ice and snow who just happen to be related to me, and guess what? I have those powers, too! Then my little sister fell thirty feet and set herself on fire, so yes, I suppose that counts as something. _"Nope," said Elsa.

"We should go back."

_I'm never going back. If I go back, I'll probably murder someone. If you make me go back, I'll murder you. _"No way."

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you didn't have fun."

"I didn't, actually. Contrary to what you might think, I don't enjoy getting lost in some creepy old castle. Even if you do."

"I didn't enjoy it, but it was exciting, don't you think?"

"I think that next time, I'll get my morning jolt from coffee," Elsa said, walking away.

* * *

Anna was back in the same bed, but now she was chained to it. There had been a long discussion about whether they should put her in the dungeon or treat her injuries and _then_ put her in the dungeon. In the end, they decided that her injuries were serious enough that it would be inhumane not to treat them.

Sure. Because it was so much better to tie her down to a bed.

She'd been diagnosed with a concussion, five broken ribs, a fractured pelvis, a dislocated shoulder, and several possible hairline fractures in other random body parts that weren't really worth treating. The worst injury she'd ever had was a sprained wrist. Now, she wasn't allowed to leave her bed. Not that she could, anyway.

She hadn't tried to make fire since, because she was pretty sure that they'd freak out. She didn't want to scare people. She wanted to go home.

A woman walked in the room and glanced nervously at Anna. A wave of frustration swept over her. _Oh, come on. What could I do to you?_

"Can you please tell me why I'm here?"

The woman ignored her.

"Or who you guys are?"

Still no response.

"Or what I am?"

The woman turned around. "Don't you know anything? You're a fire-user, we're Arendelles."

"I'm an Arendelle, too," Anna pointed out.

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it? If you were just any old fire-user, you'd be dead now. Except your sister is one of us, and she's the most powerful one we've had in centuries, maybe ever. We can't have her turn against us. So you're alive. For now."

Anna slumped down. So they were only keeping her alive so Elsa wouldn't get mad at them. "Where is my sister?"

"Gone."

"Gone where?"

"Not for long."

"I didn't ask how long she was gone for, I asked where she went."

"Probably back to your little foster parents."

"Why isn't she here?"

"That's none of your business, is it?" the woman snapped.

Anna realized something. "I know why she's not here. She's not here because she doesn't like how you've been treating me! Too late. You guys already made her mad. Elsa stays mad forever. She's still mad at me cause I stole her Easter chocolate when I was five. Oh, man, she got me back for it, like, ten times, but she just keeps bringing it up, and I'm just like, come—"

"Shut up," said the woman, walking out of the room.

That was the end of that conversation.


	13. Chapter 13: Sput

**You requested that I not make Hans a fire-user. I came up with something a little different...**

* * *

Hans walked to Arendelle Castle directly after sports.

He knew, of course, exactly why Elsa's hair was white, and it had nothing to do with her sister. Coming from a family of fire-users, he was well aware of the Arendelle family and their powers. And now Elsa—the girl he had had a crush on since fourth grade—was his people's worst enemy.

He'd always known it was a possibility, of course, but he'd managed to ignore that fact. Besides, he wasn't a fire-user. He was what was known as a Sput.

Fire-users developed in different ways, but the most common was a near-death experience. Traditional families would arrange one of these when the child was between eight and ten years old. Hans had been put through about five before his parents had decided that he was a Sput: someone who had parents and siblings who were fire-users, but wasn't one himself.

Being a Sput meant one of three things. Occasionally, very occasionally, Sputs were accepted for being Sputs. This was mostly in families with less pure blood, who had been fire-users for a shorter time. Sometimes Sputs were kept in the family but were treated badly, like a lesser person. The worst thing that could happen was that you would be disowned. Unfortunately, it wasn't uncommon.

Hans' family had kept him but made his life hell. He had twelve older brothers and every one of them was a fire-user. Hans was forced to clean their rooms, wash the dishes, do the laundry, take the last shower, and sleep in the attic. He was like a slave to them. On family gatherings, he was hidden away. He was pretty sure his oldest brothers didn't know he existed.

"Sputtie!" someone called. Hans whipped around, thinking that it was a classmate. How did they know? Luckily (or maybe unluckily), it was three of his brothers: Anders, the nineteen-year-old and Marcus and Max, the sixteen-year-old twins. "Sputtie-Sput-Sput!"

"What do you want?" hissed Hans.

"Now, that's not a very nice way to talk to your betters, little Sput," said Anders.

"You've made one flame in your life. I wouldn't say you're that much better than me," said Hans. Anders had made a flame after he'd fallen off the roof when he was five years old. He'd sparked and smoked since, but never made real fire.

"And you've made zero flames in your life," countered Anders.

"Look at his face. It's turning red. Maybe he'll blaze!" chortled Hans. In front of his parents, he couldn't tease his brothers, but it was his only defense, and he knew exactly what to say to which brother.

Marcus laughed but, at a look from Max, turned it into a cough. Anders' hair began to smoke.

"Cool it!" snapped Max. He had the darkest hair of all of them but the strongest powers. "You're smoking."

Anders patted his hair and found that it was hot. "Ouch!" he yelped. Marcus couldn't help but laugh. Hans chuckled inwardly.

"Will you guys just quit it?" said Max. "We're on a real, actual mission. And, as much as I hate to say it, Hans needs to help."

* * *

"Anna?"

Anna opened her eyes, but her vision was blurry.

"Sorry to wake you, dear…"

More than her eyes had been woken up… a memory had been, too, of a soft, sweet voice murmuring lullabies…

"Are you awake?"

Anna blinked and cleared her eyes. "Mom?"

Her mother was standing before her, dark hair in a bun. "Anna!"

She ran to her daughter and hugged her tightly. "Oh, Anna, darling, how could this have happened? You're an Arendelle."

Anna felt hurt. She'd wanted her mother to just talk to her, take her mind off the pain, not fuss about why she had fire powers! "I don't know. Why don't you have ice powers?"

"I just don't." The words had an undercurrent of unhappiness, like it was a sore subject for her. "Anna, I'm not supposed to be here."

"Why not?"

"Because you're a fire-user, and I'm your mother, and they don't want me to get too close to you!" she said angrily. "Why did you have to come here?"

"Elsa…" Anna began, before petering off. "She went missing and I had to find her!"

"Elsa?" her mother said in disbelief. "No. You should never have come. The first chance you get, I want you to leave here and never come back. Move away with your sister. I don't want you caught up in this."

"But—" Anna started.

"No. Goodbye, Anna," said her mother, walking out.

* * *

"Hans needs to" was, in Han's experience, usually followed by some disgusting task.

_Hans needs to take out the trash._

_Hans needs to clean the shower._

_The toilet won't flush; Hans needs to fix it._

"Hans needs to help?" Never.

Maybe Hans shouldn't have been so excited to help them. Maybe he should have told them that he wouldn't help. But he was too eager to prove that he wasn't just a useless Sput. So he followed them to the castle.

On the way, Anders filled him in on what they were doing.

"We've been watching the Arendelle house and the younger girl hasn't come home since Sunday morning. She went to the castle and hasn't come out. We did preliminary testing on her and discovered that she had a very low chance of having ice powers, so that can't be it. We assume that she is being held hostage so that they can get her sister to come back. If we can go in and prove that, they'll have to do something for us so we don't spread the word."

Hans didn't quite follow that thought process but didn't object.

"We know you've been in before."

"Actually, I only—"

"You've been in before, we know," repeated Anders. "So you get to lead us."


	14. Chapter 14: Fire-Users in the Castle

Anders and Marcus flanked Hans, each holding a flashlight. Max walked behind them.

Hans didn't know how many random turns he'd taken. Left, left, right, another left; he had no idea where he was going.

"You don't know the way there, do you?" remarked Max.

"I could have told you that earlier, and then we wouldn't be lost," said Hans.

"We're not lost."

Max touched a wall and a small band of flames lit up. "I've been leaving a flametrace on the walls so that we can find the way out again. However, I noticed something odd."

"And that is?" said Hans through gritted teeth.

Max smiled. "That we've been here before."

"Is that a problem?"

"It will be if I make it one."

"Then why don't you just let me lead you?" Hans snapped.

Max was silent.

They continued for several minutes more and then Marcus stopped. "Do you hear something?"

"No," said Hans.

"Yeah," said Anders. "Footsteps."

_To hell with these footsteps!_ thought Hans. "Well, what do you suggest we do?"

"I don't know, you're the leader?"

"I'm the leader? Then I suggest you lick the floor clean," Hans said impishly.

Anders punched him in the gut and Hans stumbled. "Oof!" He regained his balance, though, and returned the blow.

"Stop, stop, stop!" shouted Max, shooting sparks into the air. His brothers ignored him and continued to fight.

The flash of a bright light lit the corridor. The four boys turned around and saw white-haired women standing there. For a second, they froze (figuratively, of course).

Then Hans led his brothers as they ran for their lives.

* * *

No one was going the same direction. Marcus and Anders were gone, and now Hans was left with just Max.

Hans tripped over a stone that was sticking up and somersaulted down a flight of stairs. At the bottom, Max pulled him to his feet and they continued running.

They went through a courtyard and into a quiet wing of the castle. Doors lined the walls. Alarms were blaring. Hans tried to open one of them, but it was locked.

"They know we're here! They've locked all the doors!"

"Gee, you think?" said Max sarcastically. They turned to run again, but a line of people blocked their way. Hans spun 180 degrees and saw more Arendelles approaching from the other side. Max's hands started to smoke and spark.

"What do we do?" asked Hans quietly.

"You're the leader, you tell me," said Max.

A thought came into Hans' head, so crazy he simply had to act on it.

He shoved his big brother into one of the wooden doors and it exploded into flames.

* * *

"Fire-users!"

Anna jerked awake when she heard the term. She tried not to feel like a criminal when she heard it, but it was always said with such animosity that she felt bad for being one.

A nurse wheeled her bed out of the room.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Away."

"What's going on?"

"Fire-users in the inner castle."

Anna was tempted to point out that she'd been in the inner castle and no alarms had gone off for her but decided not to.

* * *

The room that Hans had pushed Max into was, luckily, deserted, but it looked like a comfortable living room with plush chairs and a carpeted floor. A large glass window overlooked a courtyard.

"We're gonna have to jump through the window!" said Hans. The fire was growing.

"It's okay, the fire's not our problem!" said Max. "We can just stay in here and wait until they go!"

"You may be flame-resistant, but I'm not!"

The Arendelles were shooting snow at the fire, and parts were beginning to die.

"They'll break it down eventually!" said Hans.

"Impossible," scoffed Max. "I am the most powerful fire-user of our generation."

"Well, obviously your fires can't hold against their ice!"

Max glanced around the room. "Let's jump out the window."

"We'll kill ourselves!"

"I can create a cushion of hot air."

"Since when could you manipulate hot air?"

"Well, I've been practicing. It's more fire than air, but I'm getting there."

"Once again. I'm not flame resistant."

"Look, we don't have time for this. Let's go." Before Hans had any time to argue, Max pulled him to the window and pushed him through the glass.

* * *

Anna heard shouting followed by the sound of breaking glass. She looked up and saw two humans approaching so fast her brain couldn't follow their path.

Then, they were directly on top of her.

"Ouch," said Anna, although, when she checked her body for pain, she could feel very little, surprisingly. Her pounding headache had subsided, and her chest, shoulder, and pelvis barely hurt any more.

The nurse hadn't fared as well. The other person had landed right on top of her and she was asleep on the stones.

"Well," said the person on the nurse, standing and dusting himself off. "That was quite something."

The guy on Anna groaned. "What happened to that cushion of hot air?"

"We fell a lot faster than I expected!" he said defensively.

The other boy rolled off Anna. "Sorry."

Anna's heart ceased beating.

Gorgeous was the only word to describe him. Red hair, bright green eyes, tall and well-built. She instantly decided that he was the love of her life.

He reached a hand down and Anna stared at the perfect, long fingers. Finally, she realized that he was offering help. She clumsily lifted her hand and he took it and pulled her to her feet.

He was just as strong as he looked.

"I'm Hans. This is my brother Max." His voice was amazing.

Anna then realized that she was probably supposed to introduce herself. "Oh. I'm Anna." She felt her face getting hot.

"Hans!" said Max. "She's smoking."

Anna realized that smoke was coming out of her head and struggled to calm down.

"Are you a fire-user?" Max asked her.

"I guess so. I only found out, like, yesterday, and I've kind of been hospitalized ever since."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was looking for my sister, cause she kind of disappeared here," said Anna with a laugh. "And then I fell off… Actually, I fell into a courtyard just like this. And then I woke up and I realized that I could make fire. So… Yeah."

Hans and Max exchanged a glance that Anna couldn't read.

"There they are!"

A group of Arendelles were standing down one of the corridors leading to the courtyard.

"Run!" shouted Max, and the love of Anna's life ran into one of the other corridors following his brother as twenty angry people followed them, yelling insults and curses.


	15. Chapter 15: End of Part 1

Max and Hans met up with Anders and Marcus outside the castle.

"So, was the mission a success?" asked Anders.

"Yes. No thanks to you," said Max smugly.

"So you found her?"

"We found something even better."

"What?"

"You'll find out."

* * *

When they got back to their house, it was late and all the boys were exhausted. Still, Max went straight to their father's study and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"Max, Marcus, Anders, and Hans. We're home."

"Come in."

Max opened the heavy door and the boys walked inside. Their father glanced up from his laptop and looked at Hans. "Not you."

"But I—"

"No buts. Out. This is a family meeting."

Hans turned on his heel and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

"Such temper is not good in a boy," sighed his father.

* * *

"She's not answering."

Elsa sighed and got up from the kitchen table, where she had been sitting for an hour with Kai. They'd been trying to get in contact with Gerda and Anna.

"Do you want to try her email again?" asked Kai.

"She hasn't answered the last fifty times. I doubt she will now," said Elsa. "Who knows if there's even cell service in that castle?"

She was tempted to give in to the tears that were pushing to get out. _Not now_, she told herself.

"It's okay."

"No, it's not."

"I'm sure Gerda just wants to stay with your sister."

"But why isn't she answering our texts?"

"Like you said. No cell service, probably. Or she could be busy."

"Why can't Anna just go to a regular hospital?"

"Do you want her to?"

"Yes."

Kai sighed. "The problem is, Elsa, that that costs a lot of money. Money that we really don't have. Your family is treating her for free."

Elsa didn't say anything. She knew that she was being irrational, but she didn't like the idea of Anna in the castle.

"You can visit her tomorrow, if you want," suggested Kai.

Elsa nodded. She just wanted to make sure Anna wasn't being mistreated. Maybe seeing her would assuage her fears.

* * *

"Get me out of here!"

Anna, feeling absolutely fine, grabbed the bars of her cell in the dungeon and half-screamed, half-cried at the backs of the two men.

She slumped down on the floor and tried not to cry.

"Anna?"

The familiar voice brought her to her feet. She peered through the gloom across the hall. "Kristoff!"

For a very brief moment, she thought about how attractive Kristoff was, how tall and strong he was, and how she would like very much if they were next to each other so she could hold his hand. Then, a face with piercing green eyes flashed into her memory and she decided that chocolate brown eyes and blonde hair were not nearly as nice as red hair and green eyes.

"Anna, what happened? Are you okay? You fell so far… It's all my fault."

"No, it's not. It's my fault. I convinced you to come."

"But I should have held on to you!"

"If I hadn't had the idea to come here, I would never have fallen. Besides, I was the one who ran through the door without looking where it was heading."

"But—" Kristoff laughed. "Are we really arguing about whose fault this whole mess was?"

Anna laughed, too. It felt nice. She could almost forget that she was in a dark dungeon. "If so, I'd like to blame Elsa."

"I blame the school, for taking us here."

"I blame the first Lord and Lady Arendelle, for building the castle in the first place."

"I blame your parents for having your two crazy girls," Kristoff said, laughing.

Anna, on the other hand, didn't find it amusing at all.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about my parents."

* * *

"So, what happened? Did you find her?" asked Mr. Southers.

Max nodded. "We did. And even better. We found something that will justify anything that we want to do to them."

As Max told the story, a smile blossomed on Mr. Southers' face.

* * *

**END OF PART 1**

**More chapters to follow soon!**


	16. Chapter 16: Escape

**This is the beginning of Part 2! Things are getting pretty intense... Well, they will be.**

* * *

Elsa now knew where she was going in the inner castle. She made her way through the halls and ran almost straight into Wilhelm.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Miss I'm-To-Morally-Correct-For-You," he sneered in a way that Elsa didn't think her grandfather would be capable of.

Elsa really wanted to make a rude response, but she just said, "May I pass?"

"Why do you need to do that?"

"I'm coming to visit Anna."

Wilhelm smiled mysteriously. "Oh, yes, our little enigma. The fire-user who is also an Arendelle. Yes, I think it would be nice for you two to spend some sister time together."

"Okay," said Elsa, pushing past him. Now she was worried. Obviously, something was not right.

* * *

"Fire?"

Anna nodded.

"But…" Kristoff sat down, a bemused look on his face. "How?"

"I don't know."

"And everyone else here has ice powers?"

"I guess."

Kristoff laughed shakily. "If I'd known, I'd never have come."

Anna smiled. "Neither would I. Where would we be now, if we were in school?"

Kristoff shrugged. "Lunch, maybe."

"Ugh. I could be in math class right now."

"What do you prefer, linear equations or a nice jail cell?"

"Oh, jail all the way."

Kristoff sighed. "Bulda and Cliff must be so worried."

"Are they your parents?" Anna realized that she knew nothing about Kristoff's family.

"Not really, but my mom died in childbirth and my dad was abusive. When I was seven, they found me and took me in."

"That's nice," said Anna, not knowing what else to say. "I mean, not nice, but nice that they're nice. Not your parents, well, I mean, maybe your mom was nice, or even—" She stopped and giggled awkwardly. "I'm rambling again."

"Yeah," said Kristoff. "What about you? Gerda and Kai aren't your parents, obviously, but why'd they take you in? You don't have to tell me if your don't want to," he added quickly.

"No, that's okay. My parents… well, I always thought they died two years ago on a cruise. Kai and Gerda were close friends of theirs and they adopted Elsa and me. But it turns out my mom's alive. She's in the castle. I haven't seen my dad."

"I'm sure he's here, too," Kristoff said.

"Then why hasn't he come to visit me?" Anna asked, frustrated.

"Maybe he doesn't know you're here?"

"How could he not know I'm here?"

"Well, you never know," said Kristoff. "So, back to what we were talking about. You have firepowers."

"Yeah."

"Can you show me?"

Anna closed her eyes and concentrated on the heat she had felt. A flame sparked in her hand.

"Wow!" said Kristoff. "That's amazing. And terrifying."

Anna laughed. "I guess." Then, she had an idea. "Do you think…"

She placed her hand on the metal bars of her cell.

"Do I think what?" asked Kristoff. But Anna didn't answer. She was concentrating all her energy on making a fire. "Anna. I don't know…"

Anna screamed. Her hand was so hot, it had turned red. She tried to cool it, but the heat that she had already transferred to the metal just flowed back into her. Strangely, it didn't hurt. She was screaming because the experience was so strange and it seemed like she should probably be in pain but wasn't.

A guard came running down the hall just as the door fell off its hinges and Anna's hand cooled. He raised a club, but Anna was quicker. She grabbed one of the metal bars from the door and hit him on the head. He crumpled to the ground. Anna gasped. "Oh, whoops! I didn't mean to hurt him!"

"Anna!" She turned and remembered Kristoff. Quickly, she freed him, too.

"Come on. I bet they'll be looking for us."


	17. Chapter 17: The Meeting

**Sorry it's been a while! I've been really busy recently but summer's almost here so I'll be able to update more regularly!**

* * *

Max's heart was thudding in his chest. His father had brought him to New York City for a meeting of fire-users, and he was—for the first time—allowed to attend.

Someone smacked him on the back. He turned around and saw that it was his big brother, Aaron.

"Hear you're giving a report. Excellent job, Maxy. We've got the Arendelles for sure this time."

Max smiled weakly. The way people were describing this meeting to him, it sounded like this: _Okay, you're supposedly the best and brightest, but you've got to prove yourself at this meeting by speaking in front of all of us. No pressure or anything, but this is either going to make us or break us, cause we'll get in serious trouble if you're wrong._

Max hated to admit it, but the Sput would be great at this. He was a great public speaker. Max, on the other hand, was commanding when he was with his brothers, but couldn't extend that to other people.

"Ready?" his father asked.

"I guess," Max said under quietly.

They walked together through big wooden doors with a huge flame carved in the middle. The room had a podium in the front and a dozen long tables arranged in four rows facing it. Mr. Southers led Max to one of the tables in the front row that said _SOUTHERS_ on a gold placard. Max sat down.

When everyone was in, their leader opened the meeting. Max tried to concentrate, but the politics were way too confusing. There were lots of names and treaties and dates and places that Max had never heard of. Finally, the leader said, "Now we will hear from Maximilian Alexander Southers."

Max stood up. His legs were shaking. He went to the podium, put his notes down, and adjusted the microphone. Then, he started to speak.

"Hello," he said. "My name is Max Southers." Was he supposed to say Maximilian, or was just Max okay? "I'm sixteen years old and I live in Arendelle, Maine. I'm sure most of you know that that's where Arendelle Castle, the home base of the Arendelle family is located. I was looking in the castle yesterday, and my younger brother Hans and I found a girl being held captive there. She is a fire-user."

Gasps and whispers spread around the room. Max wasn't sure if he should wait until they died out or keep going. He decided to wait. When it was silent again, he finished awkwardly, "So, that's what happened. Oh, she was pretty young. Twelve or so. And I think that's probably a good reason to go get the Arendelles. So. Yeah."

After an awkward pause, the leader said, "Thank you, Maximilian."

Max went back to his seat and let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

They had a long debate that involved a lot of shouting and several fires. Max paid little attention. Finally, his father nudged him. "Let's go."

"What happened?" asked Max.

"The attack is scheduled for Saturday."

* * *

Elsa reached the infirmary and stopped a woman dressed all in white. "Excuse me, can you point me in the direction of Anna Arendelle?"

The woman looked uncomfortable. "I'm not sure where she is," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you. Can you repeat that?" said Elsa.

"I don't know!" said the woman loudly, walking away quickly.

Elsa frowned. That was weird. Suddenly, sirens went off and a voice came over a loudspeaker.

"Attention. Prisoners loose in the castle. Please lock down. I repeat, please lock down."


End file.
